TILFORD’S iconic stone bridge will be closed for the foreseeable future, cutting the village in half, after a car skidded through its barriers on a frosty Thursday morning and narrowly avoided landing in the freezing River Wey.

The car, a silver Honda CR-V 4x4, veered off Tilford Street at its crossing over the River Wey just before 8.30am - smashing through the wooden barriers and landing on a small piece of land jutting out from the centre of the heritage bridge, where hundreds of children play during the summer months.

Its driver, a 55-yea- old man ‘on the school run’ according to Surrey Fire and Rescue, escaped through the vehicle’s sun roof without injury. It is not yet clear whether any children were in the 4x4 at the time of the crash.

The bridge remains closed to traffic and pedestrians as of Friday morning, and Tilford parish clerk Rachel Webber has reportedly notified villagers that this will remain the case until Surrey County Council decide how best to repair the bridge.

This didn’t stop one impatient motorist from moving aside the cones blocking passage on the bridge on Friday morning, however, to avoid the lengthy detour via Sheephatch Lane.

It comes just a day after the A287 Frensham Road was closed for the entirety of Wednesday this week, after a perilous patch of ice caused by a burst water main led to a succession of crashes on the road south of Farnham.